SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY.- Important works at
The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College by acclaimed contemporary artists Nayland Blake and Lari Pittman have hit the road and are now on view as central works in career-spanning surveys at two prestigious Los Angeles museums.
No Wrong Holes: Thirty Years of Nayland Blake is at the Institute for Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and will be on view through Jan. 26, 2020. Work in the exhibition from the Tang collection includes Feeder 2, 1998, a life-size cabin made out of a steel frame and gingerbread that measures 7 by 10 by 7 feet, which was a gift from Peter Norton; Lap Dog, 1987, leather shoes connected by brass chains with a brass label on each shoe, a gift of Patti and Frank Kolodny; and two sculptures that are gifts of the Hort Family Collection: Restraint Shoes, 1990, five leather shoes connected by chains to a wall bracket, and Restraint Device #1, 1988, made of leather, chromed metal, and chain.
Lari Pittman: Declaration of Independence will be on view through Jan. 5, 2020, at the Hammer Museum at UCLA. Once a Noun, Now a Verb #1, 1997, which was also a gift to the Tang from Peter Norton, is a four-panel painting that measures nearly 8 by 21 feet with additional framed works attached to each panel.
We are honored to have Tang works included in these important exhibitions, said Dayton Director Ian Berry. Blakes monumental Feeder and Pittmans epic history painting represent key periods in each artists body of work. As stewards of these important late-twentieth-century artworks, and as the Tang collection grows and deepens, we are gratified to share them with new audiences and to see that they resonate with todays art historians, who are inspired to write new art histories. These new contexts for the collection teach us all a great deal.
The Tang collection includes more than 16,500 objects, and the works by Blake and Pittman exemplify part of the Museums mission of acquiring important work by artists from underrepresented identities and that reflect the museums exhibition history: Pittman was born in Los Angeles from an American father and a Columbian mother, and his work often addresses issues of inequality and sexual identity. Blakes work addresses his own queer and biracial identity, as both African American and white. Both of their works are fueled by history and biography and deftly combine narrative and form.